Monthly Archives: November 2008

What if what happened in Bombay had been attempted in Houston? Or Bloomington, Minnesota? Or any other urban conglomeration of High Occupancy Facilities that would rivet the attention of the world and monopolize the 24-hour news channels? Would New Yorkers or Bostonians or Washingtonians acquit themselves any better than did the Mumbaikers? I have my doubts about those folks. I’d like to think that if such an event was attempted in a Red State with Shall Issue CCW some rams in the flock would have done something other than cower, but maybe that’s just a gun nut fantasy. Apparently Indian police officers didn’t have the stomach for that sort of action. Could American civilian pistol packers be expected to do any better?

A bit of healthy paranoia is warranted these days. It CAN happen here.

American readers of BC can choose NOT to be defenseless. Patriots pack heat. And every time they slip that S&W Model 642 in their pants pocket or that Kimber Pro Covert II into a Milt Sparks Summer Special inside-the-waistband holster or that Keltec P-32 in their bra, they think, for a few seconds, that today may be that day.

It will take courage to engage an AK-47 wielding terrorist with a hand gun. It takes courage to fight a small fire with a fire extinguisher. The guy with the AK will probably kill you if you miss. Enough of us must find that courage within ourselves to take the shot, or we will be powerless victims, too.

I’ve been giving some more thought to the tactical problems of engaging automatic riflemen with hand guns, which are the only firearms Americans are likely to have on them in such a scenario as we have just witnessed. The big tactical problem is being the first guy to shoot back makes the civilian irregular pistolero the target of all the return fire. Probably suicidal unless done from behind bullet-proof cover, from which our hero must escape and evade most riki-tik. The bigger psychological problem is to get over the shock. The pistol-armed militiaman needs to have thought of many things before he reveals himself as a ram among the helpless flock. He needs to have already made peace with the idea of taking another person’s life before he ever started packing. He needs to have war-gamed scenarios in his head. He needs to have been in a state of low-level alert awareness, Condition Yellow, before the Bad Guys pull their AK’s out of their rucks. He needs to recognize very quickly what a group of military-aged males pulling rifles out of rucksacks in unison means, and decide what, if anything, he is in a position to do about it at that moment.

As far as our pistolero knows, he is the only armed citizen in the crowd. In some American cities there may be a squad or platoon or even company of pistoleros in the crowd, but they won’t know that. The first citizen to commence firing will be a very brave person, indeed. Citizen York. The second citizen to commence firing may save the first’s life and change the dynamic of the battle. The other armed citizens add their firepower from multiple directions, and Bad Guys start to fall, their arrogance shattered, their plan wrecked.

Do we produce people like Alvin York anymore? I’d like to think we do, but I don’t want it proven in an American Mumbai.

“The handgun would not be my choice of weapon if I knew I was going to a fight. I’d choose a rifle, a shotgun, an RPG or an atomic bomb instead.”

“Do something. It may be wrong, but do something.” — Clint Smith

“One cannot legislate the maniacs off the street… these maniacs can only be shut down by an armed citizenry. Indeed bad things can happen in nations where the citizenry is armed, but not as bad as those which seem to be threatening our disarmed citizenry in this country at this time.”

“The will to survive is not as important as the will to prevail… the answer to criminal aggression is retaliation.” — Jeff Cooper

I am pretty certain that the whole “buddy pair” concept came from close quarter battle (CQB) training. Every CQB trained team member knows when they come to an open door or hallway the point hesitates until he gets a “bump” from behind ensuring he has a wing man for the dynamic entry. Conversely going in alone was considered nothing short of a mortal sin. Back in 96 – 98 time frame only Force Recon (Marine Corps) and the SF community trained in CQB – you had to have a clearance to attend the assault breacher course and the whole bag of techniques and procedures was considered classified. Today Close Quarters Battle drill is standard infantry training and also most likely the source of buddy pairs – although in CQB it is not always the same buddy backing you up when you run a house.

I would like to think that armed Americans would be able to disrupt a similar attack if it were perpetrated in a Red State with shall issue CCW laws. Last year and off duty police officer went up against a lone rifle wielding assailant in the Trolley Mall of Salt Lake City with a favorable outcome. Of course that was a single assailant – fighting in buddy pairs makes that a lot harder to do. But in similar circumstances I would not hesitate to do the same even against 2 or more armed assailants – at the distances these shooting are averaging a good pistol fighter is not significantly at a disadvantage against marginal riflemen because the riflemen tend to spray on full auto which from the hip is not well aimed fire and off the shoulder is defacto anti aircraft fire after the 3rd round. Nobody wants to find himself armed with only a pistol at a proper gunfight but it is better than nothing and with a little luck and some solid training I would think the average CCW holder could stall an attack like this very early as it unfolds. Those who do not rush to the sound of gun fire and hold up with others would be very problematic for terrorist gunmen to run down too. Trapped people, like trapped animals, tend to fight (well some do many just accept their fate) and if you have mothers with children included they can fight very well – especially if they have a pistol and a clue how to use it. Terrorist expected to walk into hotel rooms facing unarmed people who can do very little to stop their attackers. In the United States that scenario would be true only if the terrorists picked a city where the population has been disarmed – Washington DC, Baltimore, Chicago, San Francisco….those types of places with entrenched Democratic machines who, provided cover by a clueless and compliant media, never have to answer for the carnage in their streets when compared Red State cities like Salt Lake.

It is a matter of time before we see a similar attack in America. The group who planned this operation can obviously plan well – like so many Muslim extremist groups their execution was piss poor. Ten guys, total surprise, three days of active shooting, unlimited ammo, and cops who go to ground or run at the sound of gunfire and the total tally is maybe 300 KIA? That is a bad execution of what appears to be a solid plan. But still an attack or two or even more like that launched simultaneously across the country would bring huge amounts of stress to our complacent population and our fragile economy – even with piss poor execution. But one thing all if us can count on is that the planners know where armed Americans are and where they are not. If you live in a Blue State with restrictive CCW laws you are at a much greater risk from this sort of event than I am.

These kinds of attacks are coming and in the aftermath of the first wave it will be very interesting to see what our elected betters choose to do about it. There are a lot of options to include encouraging CCW holders to carry instead of discouraging this healthy habit. I doubt Cannoneer #4, myself or any of the other regular commenter’s here will be lucky enough to see a “buddy Team” of young terrorists pop up in front of us at the local mall or hotel (I carry a full size Kimber .45 when in CONUS just in case I do get lucky) but I promise you if we did those boys would not escape our tender mercies without a few leaky holes in their torso. Sheepdogs aren’t sheepdogs because they enjoy the title – they are sheepdogs because they cannot be anything else. Our country still produces far more than our share because unlike most people around the world we remain free men. Free to own firearms if we want, free to say or publish what we want, and most importantly free to protect ourselves, our families, and any stranger in need – with lethal force. I work with former military men from around the globe and the Brits, Aussies, Kiwi’s, Canadians, all of them know that they no longer come from lands where men can be called free. All of them have a single goal it seems and that is to live in America (I already told them that Ted Kennedy has ruined their chances because they are not poor, illiterate or from the third world) because there a man is still free. And free men don’t let ten teenagers run amuck for 72 hours shooting people in the largest city of the land. Only serfs or slaves would tolerate that.

November 29, 2008 KABUL (Reuters) – The U.S. general commanding NATO forces in Afghanistan has ordered a merger of the office that releases news with “Psy Ops,” which deals with propaganda, a move that goes against the alliance’s policy, three officials said.(What would the names of these three officals be?)

The move has worried Washington’s European NATO allies — Germany has already threatened to pull out of media operations in Afghanistan — and the officials said it could undermine the credibility of information released to the public.(Who are these officials?)

Seven years into the war against the Taliban, insurgent influence is spreading closer to the capital and Afghans are becoming increasingly disenchanted at the presence of some 65,000 foreign troops and the government of President Hamid Karzai.(When were they ever enchanted?)

Taliban militants, through their website, telephone text messages and frequent calls to reporters, are also gaining ground in the information war, analysts say.(They don’t have to tell the truth, and they have all the foreign journalists on speed dial.)

U.S. General David McKiernan, the commander of 50,000 troops from more than 40 nations in NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), ordered the combination of the Public Affairs Office (PAO), Information Operations and Psy Ops (Psychological Operations) from December 1, said a NATO official with detailed knowledge of the move.

“This will totally undermine the credibility of the information released to the press and the public,” said the official, who declined to be named.

ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Richard Blanchette said McKiernan had issued a staff order to implement a command restructure from December 1 which was being reviewed by NATO headquarters in Brussels, but he declined to go into details of the reorganization.

“This is very much an internal matter,” he said. “This is up with higher headquarters right now and we’re waiting to get the basic approval. Once we have the approval we will be going into implementation.”

But another ISAF official confirmed that the amalgamation of public affairs with Information Operations and Psy Ops was part of the planned command restructure. This official, who also declined to be named, said the merger had caused considerable concern at higher levels within NATO which had challenged the order by the U.S. general.

“DECEPTION ACTIVITIES”

NATO policy recognizes there is an inherent clash of interests between its public affairs offices, whose job it is to issue press releases and answer media questions, and that of Information Operations and Psy Ops.

Information Operations advises on information designed to affect the will of the enemy, while Psy Ops includes so-called “black operations,” or outright deception.

While Public Affairs and Information Operations, PA and Info Ops in military jargon, “are separate, but related functions,” according to the official NATO policy document on public affairs, “PA is not an Info Ops discipline.”

The new combined ISAF department will come under the command of an American one-star general reporting directly to McKiernan, an arrangement that is also against NATO policy, the NATO official said.

“While coordination is essential, the lines of authority will remain separate, the PA reporting directly to the commander. This is to maintain credibility of PA and to avoid creating a media or public perception that PA activities are coordinated by, or are directed by, Info Ops,” the NATO policy document says.

“PA will have no role in planning or executing Info Ops, Psy Ops, or deception activities,” it states.

The United States has 35,000 of the 65,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, operating both under ISAF and a separate U.S.-led coalition operation, but both come under McKiernan’s command.

Washington is already scheduled to send another 3,000 troops to arrive in the country in January and is now considering sending 20,000 more troops in the next 12 to 18 months, further tipping the numerical balance among ISAF forces.

“What we are seeing is a gradual increase of American influence in all areas of the war,” the NATO official said. “Seeking to gain total control of the information flow from the campaign is just part of that.”

Sounds to me like three fairly senior NATO Public Relations flacks and/or Information Operators found a willing tool in Hemming. Hemming doesn’t appear to know that IO includes both PSYOP and MILDEC, along with EW, OPSEC and CNO. This is classic. Three Euroweenie staff pukes want to undermine the American general, so they enlist al-Reuters for their own little influence operation.

We kept the faith with our nation’s warriors. We knew deep down that what we were being told was not the whole story. And we believed that our nation was a force for good in this world, and that the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines sent forth to break militant Islamicists of their homocidal habits were the best human beings this Republic had to offer. Zombie Time has put up a huge list of virtual minutemen. This victory is for them, too:

Here is the official list of blogs that have so far agreed to mark VI Day on November 22, 2008:

The point that I was trying to develop over there before I used up my share of John’s patience was that fear of being crucified for triumphalism and hubris should the enemy muck up one’s predictions of success causes strategic communicators to give the domestic target audience unenthusiastic, hesitant, unconvincing, caveated, asterisked, weasel-worded CYA explanations of what (they think, but they may be wrong, don’t shoot them they’re only the messsenger) has been accomplished in Iraq, along with timid suggestions (just a thought, In Their Humble Opinion, YMMV) of possible future successes which just might possibly (Imshallah, don’t hold us to it, the enemy gets a vote) lead to a generally positive conclusion to whatever the hell we’ve been doing over there for the last 5 freaking years.

This is part of a Morale Operation conducted by what were domestic oppositional elements, but who are now 59 days away from total control of the Executive and Legislative branches of federal government, including the Department of Defense. Those who are soon subject to being treated like Former Regime Elements see the downside career-wise of enthusiastically claiming victory in a fight the new Powers-That-Be wanted them to throw. They didn’t take a dive, and they’ll pay for that.

Reticence and humility are appropriate attitudes for losers. America won, or at least that tiny part of it that wasn’t at the mall won. And they are owed, big time. Voluntarily muting our sense of success also mutes our visible displays of appreciation for those who bought us that success with their blood, sweat, and tears, reducing their psychic payoff and denying them and those of us who supported them and their mission a well-earned sense of pride in the accomplishment of a hard job.

What better way for a vanquished enemy to deny the victors their triumph than to have their sympathizers in the victor’s polity give the enemy such a lop-sided vote that any last gasp mass-casualty atrocity they can pull off will be allowed to negate any and all claims of progress and make any claiming success out to be liars?

Damn shame bloggers have to take it upon themselves to declare victory, but count me in.

Logistics in the Afghan Campaign has become a popular topic of discussion over the last several days. More people are noticing that our Line of Communcations between our Sea Port of Debarkation and our logistical support facilities at Bagram and Kandahar is very long, very rough, and very insecure. I’ve been a voice in the wilderness, unheard on a low-traffic blog, sounding this warning for a while now.

Ever since the Uzbek dictator Karimov kicked us out of K2 in 2005, OEF has been living on borrowed time, logistically. We lost our theater Class I collection point and distribution center, as well as access to European rail via Russia. American soldiers in Bavaria between 2002-2005 could load up their connexes and milvans on 5-tons, drive on down to the bahnhof, turn them over to the DB and expect them to arrive at their new FOB in the Hindu Kush safe and sound. I was there twice. Friends of mine were sent up there for the close out, which wasn’t pretty.

Some people like to claim that the Afghanistan Campaign was starved of logistical support because the eeeevil Bush wanted to send every thing to Iraq. Not exactly. Afghanistan has been starved of logistical support in comparison to Iraq, because it is a side show, an economy of force theater, and has been from the beginning, because logistically supporting a large American army on the opposite side of the planet far inland from the sea is too hard even for us. It is so hard for reasons of geography, topography, ethnology, criminology and technology that even the nation that put men on the moon can’t do it except at exorbitant cost. Saddam’s misfortune was that bin Laden got away, and we could logistically support major operations in Mesopotamia.

We came to get bin Laden. We stayed because lily pads at KAF and BAF were good clue bats with which to whomp Islamabad, Tehran, Beijing, Moscow, New Delhi, Bishkek, Tashkent and Dushanbe up side the head. Maintaining these two super FOB thumbs in the eye of the regional powers was the mission after Tora Bora. They made great places to run the Special Forces Olympics out of. Beijing and Moscow saw our clue bats and raised us an SCO, outbribing us with Karimov so we lost K2 which put all our logistical eggs in Musharraf’s basket. He actually did an adequate job of keeping the LOC open, but he’s out now, and his successors aren’t earning their bribes.

I expect the next Commmander-in-Chief to declare Peace With Honor and bug the hell out, leaving lots of expensive stuff behind. I was 19 when Saigon fell. I know what that did to my Army. I dread what the Fall of Kabul will do to it.

A large and influential portion of the next Commander-in-Chief’s base loaths the military.

That’s got to be a harsh reality to face for America’s Defenders. The election was a rejection of everything they have achieved, every sacrifice they have made. It’s beginning to look like 1974. We will probably cut & run and allow Baghdad and Kabul to fall next year just like we allowed Saigon to fall. Dumb ass civilians don’t know what that does to an army, to be forced to throw a fight. It destroys morale, esprit d’ corps, motivation, professionalism. Idealists are crushed. Bitter cynics with a fine contempt for the society they serve stay in. Everybody else bails. The wounds of 1975 were still very raw when I came on active duty in 1978. Jimmy Carter’s Army was a hollow force. Barack Obama’s Army may end up much worse off.

First, consider the source, the Huff Post? These are hardcore, vicious leftists and here is where they hang out. I didn’t even bother reading most of the comments as they would do little but infuriate me, but to respond to them is like talking to the wall. They are right and you are not. The so-called “liberals” are the most closed minded individuals in this country. If you don’t agree with their “enlightened” world view, you clearly must be stupid, uninformed, a redneck, or a victim because of socio-economic status, or all of the above. If you actually had independent thought you would of course agree with them and therefore would never be in the military in the first place. By logical extension you are presumed to be an idiot and therefore it is only natural that once you leave the military or your tour as a victimized, brain washed zombie, you will redirect your havoc onto society as a rapist, a murderer or simply a victim in need of being saved by a government that will of course let you down.

Second is the cultural thinking that lends itself to this so called “enlightened world view.” It’s a not so subtly veiled neo-marxism coming form the only place in the world where Uncle Karl remains a legitimate ideology and that is the American university. Take for example the fact that a guy like William Ayers is considered “mainstream,” – he and his terrorist wife are college professors – not in Beijing but Chicago. Who else would hire these clowns? Just take a glance at their writings and what they are teaching. It’s, always under the guise of “kindness & reform” of an unjust social order but it doesn’t take a PhD to call it what it is: Marxism, relativism in the extreme, and a disdain for this country that has given them so much. These guys are just an easy example, but think about, how could they actually get a job in academia (or anywhere for that matter)? Well simply because like-minded folks have hired them. This is the “mainstreaming” of radicalism that has been going on for some time. The last vestige of the hippie-me-first-baby boomer-generation. They have left their mark in the only place they could, and not without some effect.

From this relativism is a cultural secularism, or nihilism and therefore a belief that there is something intrinsically wrong with the United States, and this evil should be punished. They flat out reject the belief that United States is not only intrinsically good but is the standard bearer for is right in the world. Our experiment as a country, even with its faults, is the greatest country on earth, and arguably has a duty assist the rest of the world to rise up our standards rather than us to theirs. Not only is there no concern for us being attacked, WTC I in ’93, Khyber Tower’s, the U.S.S. Cole, 9/11 etc., in fact we “deserve” to be attacked for all or injustices committed on the world: the gift of democracy, human rights, and humanitarian aid to start. Of course, having this intellectually lazy world view of the intrinsic malady of the United States leaves one, to conclude that our values are not worth fighting for. Logically then, there is nothing worth fighting for, the concept of “Duty, Honor, Country,”-things us military folks hold dear -is an outdated,outgrowth of our evil imperialistic ways spouted by mindless automatons who need these beliefs to justify themselves.

I don’t think the majority of people feel this way, but the influence is there, it permeates into the mainstream. Despite the reasons above there is President Bush’s failure to mobilize the American public in the wake of 9/11, and his subsequent failure to properly articulate to the American public the importance of why we fight and the continued danger Islamic militants present to us. This fight was just left to “those poor bastards in the military.” Well hey that’s what they signed up for, and like Senator Kerry said, they probably couldn’t do anything else anyway i.e.: either too stupid to do otherwise or aren’t setting up their future political careers. The so-called support our troops to me is more like “gee I feel sorry for those suckers,” much like one might do for disaster victims – sucks for them but better than than me! The fight in Afghanistan, especially, IS right and IS just and taken to its correct end will assist not only the Afghan people but provide more security in the world. Unfortunately most of the American public has not felt the sting of what failure would mean in the wake of 9/11, like America did after the attack on Pearl Harbor where the entire country for the most part was concerned with our victory. In some respects we are loosing the IO battle.
Chris M – i welcome a discussion.

Somehow, Cultural Revolutionaries must find a way to make openly displayed contempt for our country and its defenders socially unacceptable again.

Bill Gertz told Rush yesterday It’s clear to me that it’s become an ideology of the liberal left that the United States is the cause of the world’s problems. These are the blame-America-first liberals. They are now in power, and we’re going to see an aggressive campaign to basically denigrate the United States. Now, they will couch their things by saying, “Oh, yes, we love America, we want America to be great,” but we are going to see anti-Americanism fostered around world by this lack of soft power. We often hear about the liberals talk about soft power. Soft power is great, but we don’t have any capability for that right now. The State Department is basically a diplomatic post. They don’t understand the threats facing the world, the enemies that are out there that want to destroy this country.

American Exceptionalists, Nationalists and Patriots have no choice but to resist these people.